Nibbana (Pali, from Sanskrit nirvana)
is a Buddhist term, which is different from the Hindu nirvana.
While some Buddhist interpret nibbana in a similar manner as Hindus, that
is, "dying out" or "extinction" (as of a fire), others
find in it an archaic meaning of "he who is cooled,) such as cooled
from the fever of greed, hatred, and delusion, the three principle evils
of Buddhist thought. The Buddha explicitly denied the Western interpretation
of the term as complete extinction or annihilation. However, while nibbana
does not mean extinction, neither does it mean that after death the individual
exists in some manner or other. When the body ceases to function, the phenomenal
personality disappears. Buddhism denies
the existence of a soul at any time, whether before or after death. An early
Buddhist brother wrote, "Illusion has utterly passed from me. Now I
am cool, all fire within gone out." A third-century, BC, Indian text
states that nibbana "is really only the inner realization of the stored
impressions" Nibbana is a state that can be realized in the here and
now as well as after death. In the third century BC, the Milindapanha
states that the Buddha still exists but "has passed completely away
in nibbana, so nothing is left which could lead to the formation of another
being. And so he cannot be pointed out as being here or there." Later
in the same work, probably in a different hand, the nibbana is described
as "the City of Righteousness." Here the liberated man "enters
the glorious city of Nibbana, stainless and undefiled, pure and white, unaging,
deathless, secure and calm and happy, and his mind is emancipated as a perfect
being." A.G.H.

Source:

Rice, Edward, Eastern Definitions: A Short Encyclopedia
of Religions of the Orient, Garden City, New York, Doubleday, 1978,
pp. 275-277